Restoring Identities
Felix Nussbaum
Nussbaum was born in 1904 in Osnabrück, Germany, to Philip and Rachel Nussbaum. His parents recognized his talent at a young age and allowed him to pursue his art and enroll in art school in Hamburg in 1922.
In July 1944, Nussbaum and his wife were denounced by a neighbour. They were found in an attic on rue Archimède 22 and were arrested by the German armed forces They were sent to the Mechelen transit camp and given the numbers XXVI/284 and XXVI/285. On August 2 they arrived at Auschwitz, and a week later Felix and Felka were murdered. Everyone in Felix's immediate family experienced this horrible fate.
Felix Nussbaum was constrained to use his talent and his art to record and contextualize the hideous things surrounding him and to convey an image of the Shoah to the generations to come. This became his reality: full of cadavers, sickness and solitude while surrounded by thousands of suffering shadows.
Remembering
Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel was born on September 30, 1928, in Sighet, Romania. He pursued Jewish religious studies before his family was forced into Nazi death camps during WWII. He was liberated from the Buchenwald concentration camp with the arrival of the US troops in April 11, 1945. He survived, went on to study at the Sorbonne in France, and then moved to New York in 1955. Throughout his life, he fought against indifference, intolerance and injustice and he spoke against violence, repression and racism.
A dedicated activist all his life, he was a notorious writer and receiver of numerous prices and honorary titles, among which the Nobel Peace Prize (1986), the United Nations Messenger of Peace (1998), and others.. As founding Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, he led its efforts to conceive and construct the Museum. He had received more than 90 honorary degrees from colleges worldwide.
Wiesel died on July 2, 2016 at his home in Manhattan. He was 87.
Finding Justice
Beate Klarsfeld
Beate Klarsfeld is a Franco-German journalist who became known through her involvement in the investigation and prosecution of Nazi crimes. In 1960, she moved to Paris and few years later she married the French lawyer and historian Serge Klarsfeld, whose father perished in Auschwitz.
Together they investigated with detailed documentation numerous living Nazi perpetrators, such as Alois Brunner and Klaus Barbie.
In 1979 the Klarsfeld family created the FFDJF - Association of the sons and daughters of Jews deported from France. In 2015, the UNESCO designated the Klarsfelds as Honorary Ambassadors and Special Envoys for Education about the Holocaust and the Prevention of Genocide.
Ceremony
Vladimir Spivakov
Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the
Moscow Virtuosi chamber orchestra
Vladimir Spivakov, an outstanding violinist and conductor, has brightly realized his multi-faceted talent in the music art and in various fields of social life.
In 1979 Vladimir Spivakov together with some of his colleagues who shared his love of chamber music formed a chamber orchestra «Moscow Virtuosi» and has been its artistic director, conductor and soloist ever since.
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Danielle Akta
Cellist
Born in Israel on 29 August 2002, Danielle began to play the cello at age 4 at her own request. An active soloist from an early age, Danielle has performed with such renowned orchestras and ensembles as the Moscow Virtuosi & Vladimir Spivakov, the Israel Philharmonic and the Jerusalem Symphony.
Danielle is a grant-holder of the Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation and winner of many international competitions. A student of Prof. Frans Helmerson at the Barenboim-Said Music Akademie in Berlin, Danielle studied at the Raanana Music Conservatory (RMC) with Luba Rabin and previously with Galina Aronovitch.
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"Moscow Virtuosi" Chamber Orchestra
The "Moscow Virtuosi" Chamber Orchestra witnessed an arduous, but joyful consolidation of virtuosi musicians, each being a bright personality, into an excellent, finely organized musical ensemble with its own performance style and a huge repertoire comprising pieces by a large number of composers from Bach to Schnittke. Every year the "Moscow Virtuosi" gives over 100 concerts, mostly on tours.
The geography of the tours is very extensive covering all regions of Russia, countries of the former Soviet Union, Europe, the United States of America, Canada, Turkey, Israel, China, Japan etc.
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EJC President Dr. Moshe Kantor during the International Holocaust Remembrance Day Ceremony 2017
EP President Mr. Antonio Tajani during the International Holocaust Remembrance Day Ceremony 2017
Mr. Andrei Konchalovsky during the International Holocaust Remembrance Day Ceremony 2017
Rt. Hon. Tony Blair during the International Holocaust Remembrance Day Ceremony 2017
